SF Bay Area to Portland and back - 8 to 10 days - Suggestions?

Heading north the last week in May and have 8 to 10 days.
Anyone have suggestions on what to or not to do?
A down day in Portland is a must.

Cheers.

 

The two things that come immediately to mind are to ride 20 between Ft. Bragg and Willits and to ride the Avenue of the Giants.

-Mark

 

Yup yup. Awesome roads.
If you haven't done it, 36 is a must!
I've done both of those a couple of times. We were thinking about getting further east to see a bit more country. The 299, 97 139 part of the state.

-RJ

 

As always, Crater Lake. I'm from Astoria so old hwy 202 (it will run into 47 at some point). Hwy 6 from Portland out to Tillamook. Any part of the 101. Near Portland: hwy 47 from Banks to Vernonia to Claskanie. Another near Portland (east side), out to Estacada. Ride up to Mt Hood (filmed The Shining at Timberline). Its mostly flat until you get near the summit. But its a good ride. I'm not a big fan of Multnomah Falls but a lot of people are.

From Corvallis is hwy 34 out to the coast. Very cool.

hwy 199 from the redwood forest up to Grants pass is fun. I rode that years ago. Haven't been on it for a long time.

You might want to ping vfrchick on this too.

 

Sooooooooo when are we riding to Seatle or Cananda to see Randy

 

Soon Long, soon.

 

HWY 1 all the way up, is pretty awesome

 

Coastal route up to Portland--Inland route back to NoCal

If you stop in Gold Beach, Ogeron at Captain Nemo's Whataburger for the 4lb bacon cheeseburger you may not make it the rest of the way.

PS

I am not a travel agent.

 

Everything everybody else said. Ft. Bragg/Mendocino area for sure! While up there, stop in Boon-something-or-other. They speak their own language... Boontling. It's a hoot of a town. Also on the coast... there is an old hippy town, Bolinas. I've always wanted to get there to check it out, but haven't so far.

Outside Portland, going east on 84, you'll see a cut-off for a Scenic Route. It's some nice, twisty roads and there are about 6 or 7 waterfalls allong the route, the grandadday of them, being Multnomah Falls. There is also the "peak" where there is an observatory of sorts where you can stop and look out over the gorge... it's beautiful.

Also, in Portland and Bend, OR, if you can stay in McMennamin's, they are cool places. The brothers buy up old historic buildings, oftentimes schools, restore them and turn them into hotels/restaurants/entertainment/recreation areas. I've stayed in a few of them and they are always eclectic and interesting. They all have pretty wild "soaking" tubs, cool bars and great food. Many of them have their own movie theaters, basketball courts, live performing theaters... the hotel rooms at the "Kennedy School" are actually the old classrooms... and they left the old chalkboards in the rooms... the kind that slide up into the wall/ceiling... they are just VERY cool places with lots of personality.

Enjoy the ride!!

 

Oh, and one other thing I always think is fun to see... in Portland, if you can, stop in Langlitz Leathers. They've been making motorcycle leathers since the 40s or so. They are more geared towards Harleys and cruising so not necessarily what we would wear... although when I had my Harley, my first set of leathers was hand made there... I still have and wear the pants occassionally on the really cold trips.

Anyway, you go into this place, and it's literally a trip back to the 50s... small shop, friendly people, and you can actually see the gals on the sewing machines off to the side making the leathers. It's a piece of living history.

 

Oh, and don't forget Mt. St. Helens... it all depends on what you wanna do, but I went up there about 5 years ago and the devastation was still pretty fresh, not much new growth. So, it's always interesting to see... tree trunks strewn all over the mountain side with branches singed off so they look like matchsticks. Also, the Ape Caves... old lava tubes that the volcano doesn't use anymore and you basically hike for 1 mile and a half underground... in anything from tiny tunnels to areas that open up into huge rooms with boulders... ya never know what's around the next turn. That's pretty cool. Obviously if you're not into stopping and doing that stuff, but want to just ride, that may not be on your list...

 

and watch out for the high waves.....